Plot: A grieving couple retreats to their cabin in the woods, hoping to repair their broken hearts and troubled marriage. But nature takes its course and things go from bad to worse

In short: There’s a powerful movie in there, but you’ll need a strong constitution to make it through

The preamble: My cult and contentious reviews’ system. Designed as a time saver to highlight the potential deal breakers in an offering before you commit to buy or read lengthy reviews on your favourites sites/magazines. For a more detailed description please read: THE RULES

Here we go again. The Apple ‘iPhone 3GS’ is now on sale and it is already shaping up to be even more controversial than both its predecessors. On the hardware side it brings a slightly improved camera (3 megapixels with autofocus, compared to 2MP fixed focus), video recording, marginally better battery life and up to 3x faster performance. It sounds good, but more importantly what’s NOT to like…?

The preamble: My cult and contentious reviews’ system. Designed as a time saver to highlight the potential deal breakers in a product before you commit to reading lengthy reviews on your favourites sites and/or magazines. For a more detailed description please read: the Rules

Just the Bad Points Review: Apple iPhone 3GS:

Apple iPhone 3GS (the original space between ‘3G’ and ‘S’ has now been removed – go figure!)

Evolution not revolution. This is the old model tweaked, not an overhaul

iPhone OS 3.0 brings most of the software benefits to iPhone 3G owners that the 3G S offers. Find a full features list here

Price. The iPhone 3G S is far more expensive than the iPhone 3G was at launch. Check with local telco before setting your heart on it

Push Notifications bring third party app alerts but do not represent full multitasking. When a programme closes it closes completely

Addition of turn by turn GPS still requires the purchase of third party software such as from flagship partner TomTom, which is extra expense

Low light camera performance is worse than the iPhone 3G (big problem if you want to take photos on nights out)

Screen not improved at all. Same resolution (320 x 480 pixels), jump not made to OLED

Searching emails across the server only checks the recipient and subject line details, not the body text

Looks just like the old iPhone 3G. There’s not even an ‘S’ on the back

Flaws still present from before:

A new model should be announced by June judging by Apple’s past track record

Camera lacks a flash

16GB & 32GB options capacities available but no SDHC/microSDHC expansion slot to add to it

The T-Mobile G1 has been left on its own as the sole Google Android handset for seven long months, but now it finally has some company and competition in form of the ‘Magic’. Like the G1, the Magic is made by Taiwanese manufacturing giant HTC but has been sold to different networks around the globe. On the surface, the HTC Magic is a far more sophisticated handset than the G1 and is an easy sell, so most importantly what’s not to like…

The preamble: My cult and contentious reviews’ system. Designed as a time saver to highlight the potential deal breakers in a product before you commit to reading lengthy reviews on your favourites sites and/or magazines. For a more detailed description please read: the Rules

Let’s face it, in your average review what most readers aren’t looking for is praise or description. We know the majority of products these days do the basics just fine and if we want a specification list we can get that off the manufacturer’s site – it doesn’t require 1,000 words.

In short, we’re all on the look out for the Bad Points, the deal breakers, that single missing or poorly implemented feature that can on occasion be like finding a needle in a haystack. It is the issue which says for you individually this product requires no further investigation and can be dismissed.

Here’s an easy example. Considering its midrange positioning, the BlackBerry Curve 8900 is the best smartphone I’ve seen from RIM to date. Build quality, screen, keyboard, software, pricing, it’s all superb and therefore omitted.

Instead the deal breaker is its lack of 3G – something many cannot do without yet will get 700/800 words into a review just to discover. Let’s cut through this – a blog isn’t paid by the word and we’re all busy people.

So without further ado here is GordonKelly.com’s first ‘Just the Bad Points’ review:

BlackBerry Curve 8900 – Just the Bad Points

No 3G Connectivity

Got it?

Yep, it’s dead easy. Now the issue won’t always be this simple to spot, often it can be something you’d only notice from physically using the device. So this should also allow me to bring you word on the latest and hottest products FAST, after all it’s Only the Bad Points – the points that matter. Enjoy!